Appointments

Emergency appointments are available every morning. Please telephone between 8.30am-11.00am

If you have a problem and feel it could be dealt with by the GP on the telephone, please ask the receptionist to book you a telephone appointment.

Extended Hours appointments are available Monday evening after 6.30pm, Tuesday morning from 7.30am and Wednesday evening after 6.30pm.

SPECIAL APPOINTMENTS

Antenatal and Child Immunisation Clinics are all held in the afternoons. Wart clinics and minor surgical procedures are carried out by special arrangement.

Appointments for blood pressure care, diabetic management, asthma, well-women or well-men advice is all available in normal surgery times by all the doctors and practice nurses.

TRIAGE NURSES

TheTraige Nurse is available Three mornings a week Monday, Tuesday and Friday to see patients who have urgent problems. Triage may be able to deal with your problem either on the telephone or in person.

Extended Access Services

In addition to the practice’s own extended hours services, Portsmouth Primary Care Alliance (which is an organisation made up of GP Practices in Portsmouth) provides sustainable services to support General Practice and our individual practices and patients. Some of these services are shown below and how to access them; they are the:

Integrated Primary Care Service

This is a new integrated 24/7 primary care service is set to improve care and patient access to GP services in Portsmouth. The Integrated Primary Care Service started on 29 June 2018 and incorporates the existing Acute Visiting Service and Extended Access Service and adds Out of Hours provision overnight. The NHS is linking these services to provide a ‘streamlined and unified’ new model for people needing urgent out-of-hospital care. You can now access appointments during evenings and weekends at a city-wide hub at Lake Road Health Centre in central Portsmouth. Additional routine appointments will be available as well as urgent same-day appointments every day until 10pm 365 days a year. To use the new service, during normal working hours call the surgery and at all other times call 111.

Acute Home Visiting (AVS)

Since September 2015 the Alliance has provided an Acute Visiting Service. This now runs during the hours of 9am-6pm Monday – Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). If you are feeling unwell and are not able to attend your usual doctor’s surgery, you can contact your GP Practice to request a Home Visit. Some patients will be seen by their usual GPs but if following a telephone assessment your GP feels that you are unable to wait until after surgery for a visit, you may be offered a referral to the Acute Visiting Service. One of the team of GPs will then come out to see you as a representative of your practice. The doctors work across the Portsmouth area to visit registered patients at home. They provide appropriate treatment which helps to both reduce attendances at A&E and avoid unnecessary admission to hospital. Patients referred to the AVS are normally seen quickly (normally within 2 hours of us receiving the referral) and are given the best care in the most appropriate setting.

Triage System

We offer a triage nurse service Three weekday mornings Monday, Tuesday and Friday to see urgent medical problems that cannot wait for an available routine appointment. This is managed by the triage nurse who can seek the advice of our duty doctor.

The triage service is for patients who feel they need to be seen before a routine appointment is available. The triage team would not expect to discuss ongoing or complex problems which are appropriately addressed at a routine appointment.

When ringing the surgery for an ‘on the day’ (triage) appointment please call as soon after 8.30am as possible.

It is vital for patients to phone prior to attending. The demand for this service is different every day and consequently the clinic may not always run to time. If appropriate the triage team may be able to deal with problems by telephone.

Ailments that the nurse can help you with include: You can also see our link to Pharmacy First with lots of useful information about Self Care.

Coughs & colds

Thrush

Earache

Conjunctivitis

Sore throat

Rash

Sinusitis

Mastitis

Cystitis/kidney infection

Skin infections/eczema

Hayfever

Asthma (Acute)

Acute back pain/sciatica

Acute joint pain or injury

Wound infection

Chest infection

D & V

We would be happy to receive written comments to the Practice Manager, Mrs T Till.

PHARMACY FIRST SCHEME

Your local community pharmacist is a trained medical professional who can provide free expert advice on the best treatment for a wide range of illnesses and minor ailments. You can visit a community pharmacy without the need to make an appointment. Several pharmacies in the city are open until late evening and on Sundays. As well as free medical advice, your local pharmacy can now provide free medication for SOME illnesses and minor ailments under a scheme called PHARMACY FIRST.

PHARMACY FIRST allows people who receive free prescriptions to go straight to their pharmacist to receive treatment, for selected minor ailments, without needing to visit their GP to get a prescription.

Home Visits

If you feel a visit may be required please telephone the surgery before 11am on 02392 663368.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.